


The Queen, The Soldier

by beer_good



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: Fairy Tale Style, Gen, Giants, Human Sacrifice, Immortality, Post-Series, Pre-Series, Revisionist Fairy Tale
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-27
Updated: 2014-10-27
Packaged: 2018-02-22 20:38:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,483
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2521022
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/beer_good/pseuds/beer_good
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Slayers always died young. Except for one, who did quite the opposite. This is her story. It begins like this: "Once upon a time, a long long time ago, there was a town. And in the town was a girl, who didn't want to die."</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Queen, The Soldier

**Title:** The Queen, The Soldier  
**Author:** Beer Good   
**Fandom:** _Buffy_ , beginning long, long pre-series  
**Characters/Pairings:** Gen, OC-centred, but the gang shows up at the end  
**Rating:** PG13  
**Word count:** ~2400  
**Summary:** Slayers always died young. Except for one, who did quite the opposite. This is her story. It begins like this: "Once upon a time, a long long time ago, there was a town. And in the town was a girl, who didn't want to die."  
Written for the  **spook_me** ficathon and the prompt "[Giant](http://s879.photobucket.com/user/spook_me/media/Spook%20Me%20Anything%20Goes/john217_zps185c9a4d.jpg.html)".

 

**The Queen, The Soldier**

**O** nce upon a time, a long long time ago, there was a town. And in the town was a girl, who didn't want to die.

It wasn't a very big town, nor was it so tiny you'd call it a village. It was just the right size to have a castle where its elders lived, a square where the market was held, a blacksmith and a tavern and a lot of farmers who tilled the rich soil of the vast plain that surrounded them. As the town was far away from everything, it was untouched by the wars and plagues that always raged across the continent, and its elders lived for a long time and were free to spend their time creating wondrous works of art and stories that were the envy of the people in the town.

In a gorge in the wilderness outside of town lived a giant, who was the reason the town was left in peace; once upon a time, so the fairytales said, strangers had come to invade the town and the giant had trampled them and chased them off. It was also because of him that the elders lived for so long, because like all giants he knew the secret of immortality. All he asked in return, as fairytale giants often do, was a tasty young girl to eat now and then. So each year around harvest time, as the stories said it had always been done, the elders would draw lots among the town's daughters and choose a girl to be crowned queen for a day, be dressed in the finest clothes and be fed the finest foods before an elder would lead her along the road to the gorge. There, she would give herself to the giant of her own free will after asking the elder to pass on her gratitude for being given the honor of saving the town.

As the years came and went and empires rose and fell around the town, stories became fairytales and the big world outside forgot about the giant but still left the town in peace for reasons they couldn't quite explain. And its elders continued living for a long time while the farmers thrived off the rich soil. One day, a stranger from far away came to the town and asked about the daughter of a particular farmer. The stranger, who called himself the Watcher, said she'd been chosen to save the world. The townsfolk said we know, she's being crowned queen in three days. When the stranger said he wanted to take her away to be killed in a battle to save some other town, they threw him in the dungeon under the castle, just for a few days, to keep him from interfering.

Three days later, the girl bid her parents farewell in the brand-new house the elders had given them, careful not to let her red crown slip off, and then went smiling down the road towards the gorge, knowing it was bad luck for her parents to show herself ungrateful. Once upon a time, the fairytales said, a particularly spoiled and cowardly girl had refused to go, clinging to her father's legs crying and screaming until a brave knight carried her to the gorge; the town was saved, but the girl's parents had been struck by a curse and wasted away within a year. So all girls who were chosen knew to be brave, so that their parents would live happily ever after.

But as the elder and the girl approached the gorge, the sun started setting in the west, casting the entire plain in sharp red light. And the girl looked around at the world and saw that it was beautiful, and caught her own reflection in a pool of water and felt in her heart that she was too young to die. The elder put his hand on her shoulder to comfort her, and remind her that he was stronger than her. He called to the giant, who came forth from his cave at the bottom of the gorge rumbling "FRESH MEAT!", as giants often do. The elder asked the girl to step forth and throw herself into the gorge...

And the girl, for reasons she couldn't quite explain, said no.

The elder asked her again, and yet again she said no, her hands curling into fists. He reminded her that no one was allowed to refuse thrice, telling her he wouldn't reveal her shameful cowardice to her parents if she obeyed now; the girl still refused to move. He then grabbed her, knowing that sometimes the girls needed help realizing that they wanted to save the town. But something was different. The girl was barely half his size, but she was strong and he couldn't move her. When he finally lost his temper and struck her, she struck him back so hard that he didn't notice his feet had lost touch with the ground until he started falling. The girl cried out and reached for him as he tumbled over the edge, but it was too late. Her heart broke as she saw what she'd done.

But the giant, being a firm believer in equal opportunities, licked his lips and said "OH YEAH, THAT HIT THE SPOT. FINALLY A CHANGE OF DIET. NO OFFENSE, BUT I DON'T GET WHY YOU PEOPLE KEEP FEEDING ME NOTHING BUT GIRLS. KEEP CHANGING IT UP, OKAY? SEE YOU NEXT YEAR!"

When the Queen returned to her town, her embroidered shoes in tatters from walking twice as far as intended and her hair in disarray under her crown, the townspeople were horrified that the sacrifice hadn't gone through. The town constable tried to arrest her, and she fought him off. Her friends, scared that they might have to go in her stead, pleaded with her to not refuse her sacred duty. But the elders were wise, and quickly remembered an old fairytale that said the giant could be appeased for a year by a virtuous maid. And so despite her youth, she was elected to the council of elders to rule as the first among equals, and was welcomed as a savior by her people. For a whole year, the art and stories of the elders did nothing but praise her beauty and wisdom.

The next year, they let the Queen oversee the drawing. In acknowledgement of her bravery and of the new age, the lot was cast on all the people in the town, young and old, men and women. At first the lot accidentally fell upon the Queen's own father, but the elder in charge quickly apologized for his clumsiness and asked the Queen herself to draw it properly. A week later, as the Queen and the young man who had been chosen as this year's champion (as they would be called from now on) went out into the wilderness, the Queen felt stronger than ever, felt the possibility of changing things. And she smiled reassuringly at the boy before stepping up to the edge of the gorge and saying, oh great and merciful Giant, we ask that you refrain from eating us in the future. We will be happy to serve you with other treats in exchange for your friendship and protection, including the finest art and stories known to man.

But the giant responded, "LOOK, I THINK I’M BEING REALLY REASONABLE IN NOT SIMPLY EATING THE LOT OF YOU. I'M JUST ASKING FOR ONE TINY LITTLE PERSON TO EAT, AS A SIGN OF GOOD FAITH AND GRATITUDE FOR PROTECTING YOUR TOWN. YOU NEED ME A LOT MORE THAN I NEED YOU. SO WHAT'S IT GOING TO BE?"

Before the Queen could answer, the champion knelt down, kissed her hand, said "For you, Majesty" and threw himself into the gorge. The Queen watched as the giant consumed him, as his teeth ground flesh and bone to nothing, as he bowed and thanked her. Then she picked herself up and walked back to town.

 

 

* * *

As the years came and went, and empires rose and fell around the town, stories became fairytales, and the big world outside forgot about not only the giant but for the most part about the town itself. The giant kept his part of the bargain; he kept the town safe, and he kept her young. When her parents' graves had turned to dust, she had hardly aged a day. Poems were written about her beauty and wisdom, comparing her to a marble statue of a goddess bearing the suffering of her people as poems often do, and everyone knew that this was better than the way it had been before - not that anyone lived who remembered it, but that’s what the fairytales said. Most years at harvest time, the champion followed her willingly. (The few times they didn't, the people still praised her as they helped her lead the champion to the gorge.)

The townspeople never knew that the Queen sometimes snuck out to visit the giant and plead with him. The giant was always perfectly civil towards her, saying things like "I SEE YOUR POINT" and "I BELIEVE THAT YOU BELIEVE THAT" and "THAT’S ENTIRELY UP TO YOU, BUT I WOULDN'T" and other things like it, but he never changed his mind.

Sometimes, she'd consider simply killing the giant. It had to be possible; he was enormous, but he lived, so he must be able to die. Eventually she’d always remember that she'd had mulled over the same thoughts many many years earlier, and she always came to the same decision as the sun rose over the plain and the world was at its most beautiful. If she tried and failed, what would become of her people? If she tried and succeeded, could she protect them? (And sometimes, when the harvest had come and gone and the nights were very dark, she thought what if I succeed, what if next year I kill the giant... and nothing happens, if life just goes on? If we never needed the giant, what does that make the one who led all those men and women to be slaughtered?) And so she did nothing, which is to say, she kept doing the same thing.

 

 

* * *

As the years came and went and empires rose and fell around the town, the big world outside itself almost seemed to become a fairytale. All roads but the one to the gorge fell into disrepair, and the trickle of strangers to the market, which had always been small, ceased altogether. Not that it made much of a change. The town stayed wealthy, the farmers tilled the soil, and the elders continued living for a long time, but none as long as the Queen. She stayed as beautiful as on the day she killed for the first time, and never more so than on the days when she stepped out from her castle to lead someone by the hand towards the gorge. Some years, when the poetry she wrote was especially sad, they had to draw lots not to choose a champion, but to narrow down the list of volunteers.

Then one day, to the surprise of the whole town, a group of strangers - young women, wearing strange garments and speaking in strange accents - arrived from far away and asked to see the Queen. They came before the throne, led by a blonde woman with eyes of steel and a large red axe in her hand, who gave her an inscrutable look before greeting her and saying they had brought the Queen a gift. At first the Queen thought she meant the axe; something about it stirred her heart, as if it had belonged to her so long ago she couldn't remember. But instead, three of the women carried forward a large sack, opened it and placed the severed head of the world’s last giant at her feet. "Just so you know," a dark-haired girl said, "it took six of us to take the fucker down." As the Queen stared at the head of the giant, the woman with the axe spoke up again. "Your majesty... you're relieved of your duties."

And though the elders around her protested and fell into panic, the Queen suddenly realized that she was very, very tired, and had been for quite a while.

The next morning, as the first rays of the rising sun peered through the tattered curtains in the royal bedroom, there was a knock on the door. The Queen tried to sit up in bed, but the giant's blessing was broken, and seeing her once-powerful hands now those of an ancient woman, she thought she must have aged centuries in one night. She was grateful that she'd long ago had all mirrors removed from her room. "Enter," she croaked in a old crone's voice she didn't recognize.

A young girl with long brown hair came in, carrying a book that looked almost as old as the ones turning to dust on the Queen's shelves. The girl bowed and carefully sat down on a chair next to the bed, the morning sun from the window framing her head.

"You're not one of them," the Queen said. _Of us_ , she'd almost wanted to say, but couldn't. She wondered if she should ask the girl her name, but then she'd have to tell her hers, and she thought she might not remember it.

"I'm not a Slayer, no. I'm a Watcher. OK, in training, but basically yeah."

"The Watcher." The Queen nodded. "I... I remember. I suppose he must have died."

"Yeah, they do that. Well, I guess we all do, sooner or later. But we have this new thing where we're working on getting Slayers killed later rather than sooner."

"That's..." the Queen couldn't help but smile. "That's good. Just don't overdo it."

"Sorry. We got here as fast as we could. There's a lot of new Slayers to find, not that you're _new_ , obviously, but this place isn't exactly on any maps."

"Thank you. How..." The old woman's voice was barely a whisper now. "How did you find me?"

Dawn opened up the book of fairytales and placed it on her lap. She reached out and held the Queen's hand as she read her to sleep. " _Once upon a time, a long long time ago, there was a town..._ "


End file.
